Abstract

The question whether socioeconomic status gradients in adult mortality have changed
over a broad historical period has become an important political and theoretical issue
but is hard to test. In this article we study long-term trends in social inequality in adult
mortality by using data for 2 (of the 11) provinces of the Netherlands for the period 1812–1922. We apply indirect estimation techniques, which have been developed for
the analysis of mortality patterns in countries with deficient data. Our article shows
that indeed there was a clear social class gradient in mortality, with the elite having
higher survival chances between ages 35 and 55 than the middle class and farmers.
Differences were even more apparent in comparison with workers. Over time there
was a strong convergence among social classes in mortality levels. The implications of
our results for the dominant views on the change in living standards in the past are
discussed.